The present invention is particularly suited for use in propelling footballs, and that use will be discussed in detail herein; however, the basic concepts of this invention may have broader application. Accordingly, the scope of the invention is to be determined by the claims appended hereto and not the following detailed discussion.
A football team typically includes from three to five quarterbacks, and usually only one of these quarterbacks (the starting quarterback) is primarily relied on during game situations. On the other hand, a typical team will include ten or more players, i.e., running backs, tight ends, split ends, etc, who are responsible for catching passes and who will see substantial amounts of game playing time. However, due to physical limitations, it is usually not possible for the starting quarterback to practice with all of the players responsible for catching passes during game situations.
Therefore, during practice situations, it is common to employ back-up quarterbacks and others to throw passes to the players responsible for catching passes during the game. The problem with this approach is that each individual throws passes in a slightly different manner. An extreme example would be the situation in which the starting quarterback is left-handed; a left-handed quarterback will impart a spin to the ball opposite to that of right-handed quarterback. Thus, if the back-up quarterback is right-handed and employed during practice situations, the spin, tendency to drift, and other characteristics of the ball in flight will be different during practice situations than during game situations. The players catching the ball thus will often not get sufficient practice with the ball as it will be thrown during game situation.
While the situation is most extreme with left and right-handed quarterbacks, the flight characteristics of balls thrown by quarterbacks with the same dominant arm can also differ: one quarterback may throw hard and direct with tight spin, while another may loft the ball more with a looser spin.
It is also highly desirable that a football throwing apparatus be operable by one person.
Accordingly, apparatus and methods are needed for simulating the throwing characteristics of a specific individual to allow a football team to practice under conditions that are similar to game conditions.
A number of devices have been proposed to throw a football. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,926,170 and 3,951,125 issued to Dixon disclose catapult devices that are designed to throw a football in a manner that simulates the arm motion of a human passer. These devices do not provide the flexibility required to simulate the throw of a specific individual and thus do not solve the problems discussed above.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,261,319 to Dixon discloses a devices that slings a football while imparting spin thereto. This patent requires a modified football and also cannot be tuned to approximate the throwing motion of a specific individual.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,086,901 to Clement and U.S. Pat. No. 4,165,729 to Niemirow disclose devices for propelling projectiles. Neither of these patents are designed to throw footballs and thus are not designed to impart spin to the projectiles propelled thereby. Further, these devices in no way could be tuned to approximate the throwing style of a particular individual.
There thus remains a need for apparatus and methods of throwing footballs which approximate the throwing style of a particular individual.